The outskirts of Delhi, in Sidharth Srinivasan's 'Pairon Talle', bear a desolate, deserted look. But underneath it all bubbles all kinds of unpalatable stuff : masked criminals on motorbikes, desperate factory owners willing to barter their young daughters to old men for a fistful of money, hapless lovers on the run, cops on the take, and a watchman who is the last man standing between hope and despair.

'Pairon Talle's story comes out of its landscape. The characters and the situations make up the headlines in local city pages : how many times have you read about grisly killings in far-flung locations? The watchman ( Chatterjee) is not a weakling even if he can't save his young wife from the lecherous `seth'. He is as much a victim of his circumstances as the two runaways, both of whom come to a sorry pass, reminding us of the two young people in Dibakar Banerji's 'Love Sex aur Dhokha'.

But the trouble with the film is that it feels too consciously crafted. The bad guy on the motorbike is meant to be menacing and he is, till he open his mouth. After that he's just saying his lines. The explicit sexual escapades seem gratuitous, and the violence, senselessly grisly.

What stays is the strong, stark atmospherics : driving down some of those roads can make you feel you are at the end of the world. I wouldn't like to be lost in this wilderness.

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